The Raven Report: 15 APR 23

Opportunity Is Out There

Opportunity is Out There

Seize the Initiative, Go to Schools, and Better yourself as a Soldier

I failed Ranger School twice.  Worse, I actually failed the National Guard pre-Ranger program, Ranger Training Assessment Course (RTAC), twice and didn’t make it to Ranger School.  You will fail things in life – it’s inevitable.  The easy thing to do is not try; by sitting on the sidelines, you can judge everyone else, and you won’t have to deal with failure.  But real failure is not trying.  Who’s proud of all the times they didn’t try and took the easy route in life -if that’s you, the Army is not your place. 

I’ve had the privilege of doing a lot of schools in my 14 years of service, and I want to offer some insight and advice. 

Pathfinder – I went in 2016.  There was no physical component to this course, just academic.  We did three phases: sling loads, air assault, and drop zones.  Study hard for the entrance exam and all the written tests – they weren’t easy.  After those three phases, we did a 3-day FTX where we rigged slingloads and hooked them up to helicopters, planned a scaled-down air assault, and did an air movement, and the airborne qualified personnel jumped while the non-airborne called in the jumpers.  After you graduate, you will be qualified to inspect slingloads and help plan and establish drop zones. 

Air Assault – I went in 2016 after Pathfinder.  Air Assault definitely had lots of physical events: ruck marches, get smoked, rifle PT, and runs.  But all of the physical events were very manageable.  Work out and show up in good shape, and you will have no trouble.  The first half was academic with written tests, and the second half was hands-on with sling load inspections (much easier than Pathfinder’s slingloads) and rappelling. Classes vary, but my class had helicopters for us to rappel out of.

Basic Military Mountaineering – I went in 2018.  My favorite school and favorite schoolhouse in the Army.  We rappelled almost every day, usually off cliffs.  We did a high-angle shooting exercise on steel targets that was awesome and illuminating.  Land nav in the mountains is different, and the school provided an altimeter watch to help determine if you were are the right location; for instance, you know the point is in a draw, but how far up the draw?  With the altimeter and map, you can compare your elevation with what the point should be and figure out if you really are at the right location; again, very illuminating. 

The academics were a mix of knot and system tests, the above land nav, and a final written test.  There was a decent amount of classroom, but it was all very useful, mostly focused on cold weather and high-altitude medicine, how to acclimate, and environmental effects on weapons and operations.  Did you know that there is a special weapons lubricant for cold weather?  Or that if it’s freezing outside and you bring your weapon inside, then back out again, it can cause condensation (inside) and then freeze that condensation?  So leave your weapon outside if you aren’t coming inside for the day.  The classroom also covered how much weight different pack animals and humans can carry (we humans can carry the most, by far, as a percentage of body weight) and had a practical exercise for loading a fake donkey. 

At the end of week-1, there was a knot test, but you will spend hours every day practicing, including at night in the barracks, so it’s very manageable.  For systems, we learned to use ropes and d-rings to create a mechanical advantage for hauling and lowering systems and how to make a rope bridge by yourself.  In the mountains, you may have to move supplies, casualties, or similar, and those systems can be super helpful.  We also learned other skills, like how to create a system of prusik knots to vertically climb a rope far easier (imagine climbing a rope the normal way with a ruck – you’d need this system).  The instructors also taught us a system (including a tripod) for vertical ascent/descent for things like a mine shaft, cave, or subterranean entry. 

This school culminated in 2-days of squad competition STX race across the terrain, using whatever technique/system worked best for various tasks.  We hauled and lowered heavy things, built rope bridges, descended a well to retrieve something, and more; it was awesome.  Since it was a race, we usually did the simplest thing and added brute force to build a beautiful system.  But that was part of the point of the STX; have a tool bag of options but use what is best for the situation and available time.

I’ve spent the most words on this school because it was a truly awesome experience.  If we hadn’t been wearing uniforms and carrying rubber-duck weapons, it would the be type of experience that people would pay thousands of dollars for, like adventure tourism.  I learned that success in the mountains will come to the side that has mobility and isn’t held back by cliffs or misunderstanding of cold weather.  We did CASEVAC all the time, and there is so much more to properly package a casualty than we normally practice, and I still have that lesson.  Unless the welcome letter tells you to, you don’t need to study any knots before the school (but it can help, and the school has great videos for all knots).  But show up in shape.  We rucked to every training site; they weren’t overly hard, but it’s a mountain course, so there will be lots of uphill.

Again, my favorite school by far.  If you get the chance, immediately say yes and go. 

Ranger School – Third time was the charm for me.  I passed as a physically small 36-year-old major and was lucky enough to go straight through without recycling.  You can learn tons about Ranger School on the internet, so I will offer something different.  It was a superb way to remind myself what it’s like to actually execute a mission dictated by higher and the subtleties and stresses of operations.  Don’t tell yourself that Ranger School isn’t in your career path or that it’s for the infantry.  As a Soldier, you have an incumbent duty to be ready to fight, maintain a fighter’s mindset and know the essential actions to prevent bad guys from surprising you and how to defeat them in any situation.  Ranger School will teach you these and build that mindset. 

Advice

• Build a career timeline with desired schools on there.  If you can only do one a year, plan when you want to do PME (like ALC) and plan the other schools in the other years. 

• With that timeline, look in ATRRS (government computer required) to understand the prereqs and request early.  In general, try for at least 6 months out.  If it’s a high-demand school, like IMLC, go further out.

• Almost all schools follow the quota system, where the Army allocates quotas of guaranteed school slots for schools to units so one unit can’t steal all of the school seats.  If we don’t have remaining quotas, you can still try, and the remaining open seats will be filled off the waitlist starting at 45 days out.

• Lots of schools have websites, or at least Reddit comments, videos, or pictures.  Understand before you go. 

• Never take a chance on the packing list.  Playing it safe on the packing list has caused me to end up with a lot of Army stuff, but I’ve never regretted being fully prepared. 

• When in doubt, contact the school. 

I’ve been very fortunate to do 1-2 schools a year.  I have a limited word count, so I didn’t cover some other great schools, like Stryker Leader (went in 2017), Mountain Planner Course (went in 2019), Army Deception Planner Course (went in 2022), the Defense Strategy Course (currently enrolled, DL course), or Officer Education System schools (CCC, CGSC).  I highly recommend Mountain Planner and Army Deception Planner.  The Army must make tough choices, and every person it dedicates to running a school (part of the generating force) is one less person for the operational force.  As such, some schools are hard to get into, but stay persistent; there is almost always a way to solve for yes, it may just take some time. 

Schools are about taking a chance, and it’s possible to fail.  But overcoming the fear of failure is transformational, and if you truly care about your Army and your place in it, bettering yourself through schools is both an opportunity and responsibility.  Plan out the schools you want, and that will make you a better Soldier, seize the initiative, and go.  I went to Ranger School for a third time to be a better Soldier, and it paid off.  I’ve never regretted learning to be a better Soldier, so don’t let age, rank, physical size, or anything else be an excuse to keep yourself below your potential.

Book of the Week

One of the most advanced works on management and problem-solving is Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. This should be a book in every leader’s library.

From the back:

“Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning blocks that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations, in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create the results they truly desire.”

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